NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Staying connected with family
and friends may delay memory decline among the elderly, new
research confirms.

"Our results suggest that increasing social integration may
be an important component of efforts to protect older Americans
from memory decline," Dr. Lisa F. Berkman from the Department
of Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard School of
Public Health, Boston and colleagues conclude in a report in
the American Journal of Public Health.

They looked at the impact of social integration on changes
in memory over 6 years in 16,638 Americans aged 50 and older
enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study. Memory was gauged
by immediate and delayed recall of a 10-word list, and social
integration was assessed by marital status, volunteer activity,
frequency of contact with children, parents, and neighbors.

The average memory score declined from 11.0 in 1998 to 10.0
in 2004, the investigators found.

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People with high social integration and low social
integration had similar memory scores in 1998 but that changed
over the subsequent 6 years. People who were highly socially
integrated in 1998 suffered slower rates of memory decline over
time than their less social peers. Memory among the least
socially integrated declined at twice the rate as among the
most socially integrated.

"Being in the highest level of social integration
ameliorated more than half of the age-related decline in
memory," Berkman and colleagues state.

These findings are consistent with several prior studies,
all of which found that being socially engaged was associated
with a lower rate of cognitive decline and a lower risk of
dementia, the team notes.